The past couple of years here have been fun. I've been trying to fish smarter while still just having a good time and enjoying whatever bites but will not just go into situations without some strategy. Fortunately living in Minneapolis means I've got lots of access to water. Plus my fiance has started fishing with me and she loves it. She's less interested in hunting with me (though she encourages me to bring wild game home) but has started requesting to go and was all on board with getting a canoe earlier this year. The outlook is good.

I try to fish during my lunch hours when possible with a small ultralight rod and sometimes they are productive.







Ms. EK has caught some nice bass and a northern pike that tasted good.







Fished a small lake in northern Minnesota stocked with rainbow trout for the first time and caught one small fish, better than none. Pretty fish.



Got to fish Lake Superior for the first time last August and pulled up a few fish with a buddy- a few lake trout, a brown trout, and a nice steelhead. Delicious fish.

I've made several trips into the Boundary Waters in the past couple of years and have had a great time catching nice fish, including my biggest northern pike, biggest smallmouth, and a couple largemouth that are not as common in the area.

This one had a belly colored like a smallmouth. It bit on a big bucktail spinner I was tossing for northern pike right when it hit the water.



We released it at the campsite.



Here's another fun one, I caught it from a solo canoe.



Last weekend I caught my biggest smallmouth yet, a nice 21" female that was thick and full of eggs.



This was my previous best, a 20" fish caught right off the campsite.



We occasionally run into walleyes and bluegills.





10" bluegill, caught on a floating Rapala.





Fun with buzzbaits.



Finally my biggest pike yet, a 36" fish I caught last October.

Nice pictures. You look like you're having great fun.

Fun stuff.

Mike

Thanks fellas, we have a good time here.

Can it be Minnesota? How did you eliminate the pigeon sized mosquitos from all those photos?

Skeeters aren't too bad if you have a breeze and aren't back in the woods. Otherwise I wear long sleeves and...

Evan:

Nice. take her to the range and teach her how to shoot, then she'll want to go hunting sooner.

Just a hint, your choice. Kill n gut a couple fish soon as you get 'em off the hook and put on ice. When you fry 'em up, compare the taste to those you let die on a stringer. Bet you'll change you ways after that.

Nice set of pictures, thanks for sharing.
George

Thanks George! Fish dying on the stringers has yet to be an issue for me, otherwise yes I do get them on ice. Pretty strict about keeping them alive until the pan is ready or icing them ASAP.

She can shoot and shoots well, but prefers to sleep in and stay wrapped up in a blanket when I'm out in the field. Still trying to get her to come grouse hunting with me while the weather is still warm and we can walk around with the dog, but hey at a minimum she loves fishing out of the canoe and I'll take that any day.

Nice stuff Evan! Thanks for sharing. I love those pics of the BW. My son's Boy Scout Troop is considering a BW trip for the summer of 2019. I need to show them this...

WTG, looks like some great fishin . . . catchin.

Share what she enjoys to share and she may well get more and more adventourous.

quote:

Originally posted by TCLouis:
WTG, looks like some great fishin . . . catchin.

Share what she enjoys to share and she may well get more and more adventourous.

I go out with the mindset that I may just not catch any fish and you have to enjoy everything else that goes along with it, but sometimes a plan works and the stars align and you get to set a bunch of hooks.

She just caught her first smallmouth on Monday on a small lake up in the Superior National Forest and it happened to be an 18" fish that put up a great fight, and she wants more. Win-win!

quote:

Originally posted by DesertRam:
Nice stuff Evan! Thanks for sharing. I love those pics of the BW. My son's Boy Scout Troop is considering a BW trip for the summer of 2019. I need to show them this...

You're welcome, if they need more motivation here's some BWCA scenery to enjoy. My troop never did any BWCA trips or anything like it so after several canoeing trips when I was young our summer and fall campouts seemed pretty tame.

Knife Lake:








Lake Three:








Heritage Lake:




I can go on and on... but I think you get it- and get those boys up North!

Evan K

Great Pics.

Define Peace and the joy of canoes.

quote:

Plus my fiance has started fishing with me and she loves it. She's less interested in hunting with me (though she encourages me to bring wild game home) but has started requesting to go and was all on board with getting a canoe earlier this year. The outlook is good.

Sounds like a real trophy. Don't practice catch and release, she's a keeper! Congrats.

Evan:

I was up in MN in August and went fishing with my daughter and son in law. Vermillion was not great but had a blast catching largemouths on weedless frogs on the lake they live on.

Leaving in 13 days for nearly 3 weeks. I hunt all over the world but never miss deer hunting at the shack.